Docker preps on-prem container store, hungry investors give it the D

We don't even need the money, laughs CEO as Valley sugar daddies shovel more cash

Linux container-wrangling outfit Docker, flush with cash from a fresh round of funding, says it will release its first commercial product to general availability this quarter.

The software, an on-premises version of the firm's hosted container repository called Docker Hub Enterprise (DHE), was launched as a private beta program around the DockerCon EU conference in Amsterdam in December.

On Tuesday, Docker CEO Ben Golub said in a blog post that 15 companies are participating in that beta, half of which are in the Fortune 50, and that 100 companies expressed interest in DHE when it was announced.

"These organizations – and an increasing number of mainstream enterprises – are providing validation that commercial management solutions and commercial support will form a sustainable first revenue stream for Docker," Golub said.

Docker had not previously committed to a time frame for when it would have a product in general availability.

Golub's comments came alongside news that Docker had secured $95m in new series D funding, just seven months after closing a $40m series C round in September. This latest round was led by Insight Venture Partners and brought in Coatue, Goldman Sachs, and Northern Trust as new investors. Current Docker investors also participated.

Not that Docker was hurting for cash or anything; Golub said the company, which has only recently grown to 120 employees, still hasn't spent all of the money from its series B funding round. But if investors are going to keep banging on the startup's doors, he said, far be it for him to turn them away.

"Whatever seemingly ambitious goals Docker set at the time of the last round have been dwarfed by what the Docker ecosystem has delivered in terms of usage, product innovation, partnerships, and in mainstream enterprise adoption," Golub crowed. "Raising a large round now helps ensure we can respond to what the past seven months have brought and whatever the next several years may bring."

Golub said more than 10,000 organizations are now using Docker Hub, the hosted version of its software, and that the repository is now home to more than 100,000 containerized applications. Over 300 million container images have now been downloaded from the service, he said, up from 100 million at the beginning of January. ®